Book Report 2

Title: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4

Author: Sue Townsend

Publisher & Year: 도솔, 초판발행 1990. 2. 12.


Vocabularies -

1. consolation - the act of consoling; comfort; solace.

2. introspection - observation or examination of one's own mental and emotional state, mental processes, etc.; the act of looking within oneself.

3. slopping - to be unduly effusive or sentimental; gush (usually fol. by over).

4. malingerer - to pretend illness, esp. in order to shirk one's duty, avoid work, etc.

5. diabolical - having the qualities of a devil; devilish; fiendish; outrageously wicked

and many, many more.....


Summary:

Adrian Mole is a troubled adolecent. He is bullied at school, his parents don't care for him, has skin problems, has to take care of a bitter old man, his dog causes trouble, and is heartbroke. He even experiences being a one parent child, and at one point was so poor that his phone got cut off. However, aside from all these things he believes himself to be an intellectual. He would read as many books as he can to increase his knowledge, and frequently write poems to cultivate his sentimental abilities. Although this boy goes through rough times, most of the things turn out well in the end(his mother comes back to his father, his father gets a job, he succeeds in becoming lovers with Pandora, befriends Bert Baxter the grubby old guy, etc.).


Comment:

Unlike all the other books we were forced to read, this one was actually fun. This is probably because the speaker is around the same age as me, and of his problems are almost the same as mine. I nodded in agreement to almost everything he would list in diary and felt relieved when things turned out to be good at the end.
Out of all the happenings in this book, there were some parts that I expecially liked such as when he protested against the school for its dress code regarding socks, when his father and mother reunited, and when Bert Baxter got married. However, I have to say that my favorite scene of the whole book was when Adrian hang out with Pandora. Judging from the things he said, Pandora is the beauty queen of his school. Usually this kind of people do not hang out with geeks like Adrian, but somehow he got to strike up a relationship with her. This proved that Adrian is not a complete loser afterall, and might have encouraged every male-reader who thinks he's a nerd to not lose courage.

I heard that there are some sequels to this book. I'll give them a try when I have time(I don't know when that will be, or if it will even exist).